Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments and, more particularly, to surgical instruments including a force applier for grasping, treating, sealing, stapling, and/or dividing tissue.
Description of Related Art
Many surgical instruments are known for sealing, stapling, or otherwise joining tissue. Some of these surgical include one or more movable handles, levers, actuators, triggers, etc. for actuating and/or manipulating one or more functional components of the surgical instrument. For example, a surgical forceps may include a movable handle that is selectively actuatable relative to a stationary handle for moving at least one jaw member with respect to another jaw member of the forceps between spaced-apart and approximated positions for grasping tissue therebetween. Such a forceps may further include additional triggers for selectively actuating electrosurgical energy or for deploying staples, and/or for deploying a knife between the jaw members to cut tissue grasped therebetween.
In certain types of surgical procedures, e.g., lobectomies, segmentectomies, nephrectomies, etc., when a surgeon wishes to seal thick tissue, such as lung parenchyma tissue or solid organ tissue, traditional sealing methods may not be desired due to the thickness and strength of the target tissue. Accordingly, a surgical instrument for joining thick tissue may be useful.